NEWS– The High Court sitting in Gulu and presided over by Justice Micheal Elubu has today afternoon sentenced Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Thomas Kwoyelo to 40 years in prison after a landmark war crimes trial over his role in the group’s two-decade reign of violence.
Court ruled that the convict played a prominent role in the planning, strategy and actual execution of the offences of extreme gravity and the victims have been left with lasting physical and mental pain and suffering.
Kwoyelo was found guilty in August of 44 offences, including murder and rape, and not guilty of three counts of murder, while 3 alternate offences were dismissed.
The trial has marked the first time a member of the Lords Resistance Army is being tried by the Court in Uganda and also the first atrocity case to be tried under a special Division of the High Court that focuses on international crimes.
The Lords Resistance Army was founded in the late 1980s with the aim of overthrowing the government of Uganda led by President Yoweri Museveni and brutalised Ugandans under the leadership of Joseph Kony for nearly 20 years as it battled the military from bases in northern Uganda.
The fighters were notorious for horrific acts of cruelty, including hacking off victims’ limbs and lips and using crude instruments to bludgeon people to death and Kwoyelo, was a low-level commander of the Lords Resistance Army, tasked with caring for the group’s injured members.
When presenting his defence, Kwoyelo said that he was forced to join the Lords Resistance Army in 1987, after the group’s members abducted him on his way to school when he was aged 12, at the peak of the rebel conflict.
He however went on to become a senior Lords Resistance Army Commander, using the name of Latoni and overseeing the treatment of wounded fighters but was captured in 2009 in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during a raid by Regional Forces.
This was after the Lords Resistance Army rebels had been forced out of Northern Uganda into Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and other neighbouring countries a few years earlier because of the Ugandan military’s offensives on the group and Kwoyelo who had been injured was brought back to Uganda, treated and has spent 14 years in prison as the prosecution put the case against him together, but due to his long pre-trial detention by the Ugandan authorities, some sections of people had advocated for his unconditional release.
Human Rights groups, such as Avocats Sans Frontieres, pointed out that holding Kwoyelo in detention for more than a decade muddled the case for the prosecution, but others including victims, said Kwoyelo was involved in killings and torture and should therefore face justice.
The conflict in Northern Uganda led to the abduction of tens of thousands of children, some as young as six years, who were forced into combat and sexual slavery, as thousands of children were abducted by the group and used as sex slaves or child soldiers.
Defence lead lawyer Caleb Akala had consistently pleaded Kwoyelo’s innocence, arguing that he was himself a child victim of the Lords Resistance Army, however, witnesses maintained Kwoyelo led several LRA incursions and was involved in killings.
However, Kwoyelo avoided the death sentence because he was recruited by the Lords Resistance Army at a young age, was not one of the top-ranking commanders, and has expressed remorse and a willingness to reconcile with the victims.
Additional Reporting from Associated Press.
